1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to green technologies, and more specifically to harvesting power from DC sources such as solar panel arrays.
2. Related Art
Power is often harvested from various DC sources. DC sources provide output power with a fixed or constant polarity, as is well known in the relevant arts. Solar panels are examples of such DC sources.
A solar panel refers to a packaged assembly of photovoltaic cells, with each cell generally being designed to generate power from incident solar energy in the form of light. A single solar panel generally produces only a limited amount of power.
Hence, several solar panels are typically combined to form a solar panel array. Solar panels may be combined in series to generate a higher voltage output. Multiple series-connected solar panels may also be combined in parallel to enable a higher output current capability.
Power harvesting from solar panel arrays refers to techniques for drawing power generated by solar panels. The techniques may need to be designed to address several concerns, such as for example, the ability to draw the maximum power from each solar panel in a solar panel array, operational reliability of the panels, etc.
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